[objennasweene]

Baby, I’m Back: True Tales of Near-Death Experiences
10/2/2007


Unless you're one of the lumbering zombies in a George Romero flick, death is usually a one-way trip.

But not always: Recently, reports have been popping up around the world of lucky people returning to consciousness after their doctors had signed their death certificates. Paraphrasing Mark Twain, the reports of their deaths have been greatly exaggerated.

In one of the most recent cases, a man in Caracas, Venezuela, was declared dead after a highway accident. At the morgue, the first clue that he'd been misdiagnosed was when he began bleeding during the autopsy. The second clue? He woke up.

Strange as it seems, this isn't the first time this odd phenomenon has occurred outside of a Stephen King story. Just this past April, Freddie Maguire, 47, from Dublin, suffered a heart attack and was pronounced dead after doctors fought for 30 minutes to save his life. However, en route to a mortuary refrigerator, a nurse saw Freddie's hand move. Incredibly, he is now on the road to recovery. Perhaps Freddie's aunt had the best comment regarding this potentially tragic incident: "When I die I want to be buried with a mobile phone," she told the UK's Evening Herald.

These recent occurrences bring to mind a fascinating and controversial phenomenon – the near-death experience (NDE), when someone close to death perceives events that seem impossible or supernatural. People across the globe have reported similar experiences time and time again, such as:

1. A feeling of calmness or euphoria.

2. A vision of an intense, pure light.

3. The person feels like he has left his body (out-of-body experience) and can look down and see himself – sometimes when he is on the operating table.

4. He finds himself in a tunnel with a light at the end.

5. Sometimes the person sees spirits that may be perceived as loved ones who have passed away, angels or saints, which he may even be able to talk to.

6. He sees his whole life flashing before his eyes.

Thousand of normal, everyday people claim such remarkable experiences have happened to them. In Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve, Sandra M. Gilbert reports on some of the more famous people who have had a near-death experience.

Jane Seymour suffered an extreme allergic reaction to penicillin. When doctors were trying to resuscitate her, she remembers floating above them, watching herself in bed.

Peter Sellers had a series of heart attacks and was declared clinically dead. He reported seeing a bright light and leaving his body before he was revived.

Elizabeth Taylor spoke of the time she was pronounced dead on the operating table. She experienced passing through a tunnel, seeing a brilliant white light, and encountering the spirit of her late husband, Mike Todd.

Gary Busey was dying on the operating table after brain surgery. He remembers being surrounded by angels and seeing big balls of light that carried warmth and unconditional love.

Erik Estrada was in a horrific motorcycle accident, and while in a near-death state, remembers being in a long corridor with bright lights, beautiful music, where he felt great peace.

William Peterson of CSI fame was on the operating table after heavy blood loss from an almost-severed finger. As doctors lost his vital signs, he saw himself on an escalator in a long tunnel with a lot of white light. Suddenly he heard a voice telling him to get off the escalator: "It's not your time."

While some claim that these NDEs offer proof of an afterlife, others feel there are scientific explanations for all these incidents. For example, Time reported that survival is our most powerful instinct. Therefore, when the heart stops and oxygen is shut off, the concept of looking at your whole life in flashback may really be the brain hurriedly checking all its memory banks, desperately trying to figure a way out of this predicament.

What about the feeling of calmness that so many experience? It may be a neurochemical anti-panic mechanism in the brain that is triggered in times of great danger. This anti-panic device allows you to calmly figure your way out of a hazardous situation.

Scientists also theorize that seeing the white light and tunnel could be due to an impairment at the sides and rear of the brain. Others have theorized that the white light could actually be the bright hospital lights.

And a Swiss neuroscientist theorized that the out-of-body experience may be caused by stress on the temporoparietal junction of the brain, which results in a feeling of dissociation (out-of-body feeling).

We're not sure what the correct answer is - spiritual or scientific, or maybe a little bit of both. But to play it safe, we've decided to take Freddie Maguire's aunt's recommendation: We plan to be buried with a cell phone with unlimited long-distance minutes.

Original story by: Katie Ann Rosen http://www.gimundo.com/Articles/Dail...th_Experiences

[milfovoxapl]

My great grandfather 'came round' in his coffin on the way to his funeral in a horse-drawn carriage. He managed to knock and bang and luckily was heard and lived on for quite a while. Scary!
I have met two NDE experience experts, George Ritchie (http://www.near-death.com/ritch.html) and Raymond Moody (http://www.lifeafterlife.com/). Both have convinced me of the reality of NDEs and helped me to prepare - in a small way - for when it is time for me to move on and how to help people who are worried (or interested) about death.

Naked Rev

[11Woxsepmoomo]

You also have to make it past the embalmers these days...

[piramirra]

You also have to make it past the embalmers these days...

That's the hard part now-a-days. The law in the US requires that all the blood be withdrawn and embalming fluids injected regardless of burial or cremation. Of course, not everyone complies with the law.

Peace & Love!

[homerdienru]

My great grandfather 'came round' in his coffin on the way to his funeral in a horse-drawn carriage. He managed to knock and bang and luckily was heard and lived on for quite a while. Scary!
I have met two NDE experience experts, George Ritchie (http://www.near-death.com/ritch.html) and Raymond Moody (http://www.lifeafterlife.com/). Both have convinced me of the reality of NDEs and helped me to prepare - in a small way - for when it is time for me to move on and how to help people who are worried (or interested) about death.

Naked Rev

From, "LIFE IN THE 1500'S"

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell. or was considered a dead ringer.

[megasprut]

Interesting, the timing of this.

Miracles can happen. Darryl Perry, a 40 year old man, suffered heart trauma and was pronounced dead in the middle of the night. He was taken away to a hospital and put on a respirator. This is an almost unbelievable story because Mr. Perry's brain activity was nonexistent for a full seven minutes.

He was put on the respirator for three more weeks, while his wife was told to pull the plug on him because he would live the rest of his life as a vegetable. But Darryl's wife Nicky stuck to her guns believing that her husband and the father of her children would pull through and survive.

And he survived. After three weeks of being in a coma, Darryl Perry the miracle man, woke from his slumber. His health is apparently improving every day.
This is an amazing story and a true miracle or who knows what.

This was a news story on my home page this morning.

Peace & Love!